My ancestor is a Captain W.H.Bevan. I cannot find any records
regarding his naval history can you help me find this information?

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 26 Jan 2003 09:12 PST

Dear ritchieh,

When did your ancestor live? The dates of birth and death might be
helpful, as well as any other information you could provide
(nationality, place of birth, place of death, known facts about his
life - anything).

Best regards,
Scriptor

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 26 Jan 2003 14:25 PST

Hello ritchieh-ga,

Do you happen to know what the initials "W.H." stood for?  That
information would probably assist us in our research.

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Clarification of Question by ritchieh-ga on 27 Jan 2003 00:47 PST

We believe his name to be William Henry Bevan although we cannot be
certain of the second name.
We know that he converted the College in Penarth, Wales to a Hotel. It
was called the Washington Hotel. Apparently it was named so to attract
American Visitors.
There was a snippet of info at a site by blueline.org but when we went
to check this info the site has since closed.
We have no records of birth or death.
He was involved in an incident of rescue of a well known American
Family, The Vanderbilts (I am not sure if this is the correct
spelling)
When we asked at the Maritime Office here in Cardiff they were less
than helpful. This is why I have posted this question.

Hello ritchieh-ga,

It does indeed appear that your ancestor's name was William Henry
Bevan.  He is listed with that name in a description of an article
concerning his rescue of the Vanderbilts.

"Glamorgan Bibliography - parishes M - P: Penarth" (Last Updated : 4
Jan 2003 - Gareth Hicks) [under "Davies, Rosemary A."]
GENUKI
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/GLA/Books3.html#Penarth

As indicated on that page, the item appeared in the Glamorgan
Archivist Annual Report (1992).  This publication is available (while
stocks last) from the Glamorgan Record Office for £3 or £3.50 by post.

"Glamorgan Record Office"
Cyngor Archifau Cymru / Welsh Archives Council 
http://www.llgc.org.uk/cac/cac0026.htm

"Glamorgan Record Office: Publications, Leaflets and Guides : Annual
Reports"
Cyngor Archifau Cymru / Welsh Archives Council 
http://www.llgc.org.uk/cac/cac0043.htm#Annuals

In addition, I have found a cached version of the "blueline" page that
you mentioned.  It was actually a page about the Blue Star Line ship,
S.S. Sultan, commanded by Captain W. H. Bevan.  As you can see, the
page contains a fair amount of information about Captain Bevan's
experience on the day the ship was torpedoed and sunk, as well as
other information.

Google cache of "Blue Star Line's S.S. 'Sultan Star'" (Updated: 09
June 2002)
Blue Star on the Web
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:IK74DvZuHnMC:www.bluestarline.org/sultan.html

I have also found a page that I suppose you've seen already,
concerning the conversion of the College in Penarth to a hotel.

"Penarth Town Trails from the Penarth Society" [under "8 Rectory
Road"]
The Civic Trust for Wales / Ymddiriedolaeth Ddinesig Cymru
http://www.civictrustwales.demon.co.uk/trails/Penarth_trails/penarth1.html

Given Captain Bevan's association with Penarth and, more generally,
Glamorgan, you will likely be able to find more information there.  A
good place to start should be the Glamorgan Record Office, whose
contact information is indicated in one of the pages I cited earlier.

I hope that this information is helpful.

- justaskscott-ga


Search terms used on Google:

"w h bevan"
"william henry bevan"
"glamorgan archivist"

[I tried other searches as well, on Google and elsewhere, but these
were the searches that resulted in the pages I have cited.]

Thank you very much!! That was an exceptionally quick response and it
has provided more information than we were aware of. This should now
help us to continue our research.